blogging since 2007 about European music, travel and all things Eurovision-related, as well as a bit of telly and retro-tastic music.

Sunday, January 04, 2015

2014: the hate chart

After all my love for my top 50 songs of the year it's time to bring back an old feature on this blog from a few years ago, my hate chart. Now I'm not one for negativity but the quality of chart music reached new lows in 2014 was so dire that I couldn't let the end of the year pass without a reminder of some of the horrific so-called "music" which we had to suffer. I know many of you will probably disagree with some/most/all of my choices, as these songs were all either critically acclaimed and/or chart hits, but remember these are only my own opinions!!

10. Rather Be - Clean Bandit feat Jess Glynne
One of the year's most played and overhyped songs. This represents everything which I hate about the British music scene and Radio 1 in particular. Smug posh students with their "aren't we great, fusing cellos and classical music with credible daaaaance music". Yawn. And as if that wasn't bad enough, every end-of-year musical retrospective seemed to feature this song.

9. Stay High (Hippie Sabotage Mix) - Tove Lo
Now I know that I would usually be supporting European, and particularly Swedish, artists on this blog but here goes with the #unpopularopinion - I just don't get the Tove Lo hype. The original is slightly more bearable than this particular mix which is just annoyingly repetitive.

8. I Got U - Duke Dumont feat Jax Jones
I liked "Need U (100%)" but this is something different altogether. Sampling from a Whitney Houston song is bad enough (I wasn't a fan, sorry) but every time I hear that 'as long as I got you baby' I want to throw the radio at the wall; that would be a waste of a very good radio though.

7. Chandelier - Sia
I loved Sia's work with Zero 7 back in the day but the chorus of this is so ear-splittingly unlistenable. Another unpopular opinion I suppose, as she is very popular and this song is loved by many, but I reach for the off button whenever it comes on the radio.

6. Say Something - A Great Big World feat Christina Aguilera
This song was this year's Chasing Cars, soundtracking all the 'emotional' bits on reality/talent shows. The video was on high rotation on the music channels at the time my mum was very ill so this song just has bad memories for me.

5. Hideaway - Kiesza
This potentially could have been a good song, with its retro-dance vibe. And then she goes and spoils it all with the worst non-chorus of the year. Throw in the beyond-irritating one-take video, and off it goes.

4. Wake Me Up - Gareth Malone's All-Star Choir
Yeah I know it's for charity and all that, but this is like a John Lewis ad version of Avicii and Aloe Blacc's overplayed country-dance tune. I don't know why anyone would want to listen to this more than once - no, in fact I don't know why anyone would even want to listen to this once.

3. Problem - Ariana Grande feat Iggy Azalea
Grande is yet another one of those young stars who started off in a US TV kids show and seem to think it's their God-given right to become proper pop stars. Azalea is an overrated Aussie rapper. Together, this makes my ears bleed.

2. Real Love - Tom Odell
Before I slaughter this song, let's all have a big "awwww" at Monty the John Lewis penguin, star of their 2014 Christmas ad. Unfortunately the John Lewis Christmas ad means a boring slowed-down version of an old hit, performed by an equally irritating performer. In this case, Tom Odell destroying the Beatles song. I can't even listen to this, and it would have topped my chart had it not been for .....

1. Money On My Mind - Sam Smith
2014's Hype of the Year, I mean Brits Critics Choice award winner - I still chuckle at how ridiculous that is, giving out awards to people who haven't really done anything yet. I had high hopes after his excellent vocals on Disclosure's "Latch" but that "La La La" song should have been a warning. Sam Smith as a solo artist does nothing for me. This for me is 2014's most irritating song, by the year's most overrated artist.

Me myself and I

My name is Laura. I have three blogs - EuropeCrazy, which was born on 11th March 2007, and its spin-off Planet Salem which came into the world on 1st December 2007, then along came EuropeCrazy's Random Ramblings on 11th October 2008.